A STYLO-LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS OF THE SAFARI RALLY (2024) MOTORSPORT COMMENTARIES IN KENYA
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Date
2025-09
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THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN AFRICA
Abstract
This study offers a stylo-linguistic exploration of a commentary on motorsport in the 2024 Kenya Safari Rally in Kenya based on Critical Stylistics (CS) (Jeffries, 2014). To examine how people use language to create meaning, reinforce ideologies, and make them fit the audience expectations in a high-speed environment. Multilingual is interesting to study the discourse examined through 65 commentary segments or segments of commentary sourced in five platforms (television, radio, online streaming, print, and social media). In order to explore linguistic properties (use of metaphors, technical jargons, and interchanging codes), syntactic form (sentences and discourse markers), narrative logicality (chronological order and cause-and-effect analysis), and sociolinguistic aspects (gendered language and cultural orientation), qualitative strategies such as thematic coding and discourse analysis were used. It was established that motor sport commentary promotes technical accuracy through lexical density (78%) and emotional narrative with the sliding use of animal and combative-related metaphors (31 and 24 segments, respectively) to make race coverage dramatic and reach a variety of subjects. Syntactic patterns dynamically conformed to race intensity, with small syntactic units prevailing in the periods of great action (Spinning! He has gone off the track! (He is not on the track!), complicated constructions that appear in situations of strategizing (As long as he rationed the fuel, he could podium). Chapter Five concluded the contribution of the work in sports linguistics and the African media discourse, concluding that motorsport commentary is the multilingual reality of Kenya, contributing to the ideologies of its society in cultural terms. It was proposed to train commentators on gender-neutral language, multilingual broadcasting, and developing cross-cultural studies on syntactic flexibility. It represents a notable study in African motorsport linguistics because it shows that linguistics closely aligns with international technical norms by acting as a form of intermediation between a globalized world and a localized media form, creating a remarkably replicable real-time, high-speed sporting discourse analysis model. The combination of Critical Stylistics and qualitative analysis makes this study emphasize the role of culture, language, and audience involvement in the research, with practical implications for commentators, media companies, and researchers.
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Stylo-linguistic analysis, motorsport commentaries, Safari Rally 2024, sports discourse